Desires of the Tower
by Lucenthia
Summary: Following various characters as they try to climb up the Tower and fulfill their desires. This fanfic was based of characters in a batoto forum thread.
1. Part 1, Chapter 1

The 20th floor. Where the strong prey on the weak; where the outstanding soar while the ordinary crumble; where dreams are forged and nightmares are born; etcetera. I'd read all about that stuff from my box, something to do in the free time during the easy tests. I'd passed through the 2nd floor without much drama (except for the shock of finding out the robed proctor was a guy) and I thought that I'd be a shoo-in to pass the rest. For the next 17 floors that was true, and in 4 years I'd made my way to the dreaded "Needlehole to Heaven".

I'd liked reading, even before I came into the tower. When I got my box and lighthouse it was like stepping into a library that stretched out further than the ceiling of the floor I lived on. It was heaven. I haven't had much time for that anymore, too busy dodging the goddamn loan sharks that live on this floor. None of them've caught up to me though 'cause I'm smart. I know how they work. They rely on tracking us through pocket registration, and since that's worked with everyone else they think it'll work with me. But it doesn't. I can track each restaurant and see if it's linked with any loan shark businesses and I steer the hell away from them. Of course, this method doesn't account for randomly bumping into them on the street.

Okay, fuck me. That wasn't exactly a foolproof method of avoiding loan sharks, but the district I was living in was huge, and I had made sure to stay away from the main base. How the hell was I to know that these loan sharks had been checking up on a victim that hadn't been smart enough to realize that these guys really did know what they ate and shit every day. For scrawny looking residents these guys really knew people's soft spots. Short jabs to ribs, efficient kicks to abdomen and balls, these guys really knew their stuff. After a while, they left me and dumped me over next to the guy they'd been following. As a parting gift they lent me more money at the same interest rate, along with the threat that if I didn't pay them back they stuff things up my ass so far I wouldn't be able to find it with my lighthouse

I'd never been those strong beefy fishermen types; those guys with muscles even thicker than their brains. That and the fact that they'd stomped on my kneecap were pretty good incentives for me to stay lying down. But I had (and still have) a big mouth (yeah, weird for a bookworm) and with a guy lying right next to me in no shape to run away, what else could I do?

"So, you one of the little fish that get eaten up by these sons of bitches?" Everyone likes bitching about this or that, and nothing makes friends faster than bitching about the same thing.

Except this guy who didn't and stayed silent.

I looked around to see if he was unconscious. He wasn't, just staring up at the blue ceiling. I tried again. "What's your name?" Always a safe start. No surprises, a nice icebreaker.

But this guy seemed intent on breaking all the rules about starting conversations because he just kept on staring at the ceiling.

I sighed. I tried one last time. "You taking the next test?" I'd run out of strategies, or the vitality to actually care and just said something for the hell of it. So, of course, this random stab finally got a response out of this guy.

"If you do not curb your tongue I swear by the guardian I will roast your ear off." The guy hadn't looked at me, but he talked all the same.

It's weird how pockets translate languages, but everything else like tone, accent, and voice is still unique. This guy had a really upper-class kind of voice; the kind that sounds like kings from those fantasy books, and I knew he was a kid of an official. So why the hell was he getting the crap kicked out of him on this floor. Even sons of normal rankers had an advantage in climbing up the tower.

"Nice threat. You got a torch to back it up?" Didn't seem like a nice guy, but then again, no one's their social best after they'd just been on the receiving end of multiple boots. Not everyone could be as engaging as I could right?

He didn't say anything, but the fire he produced above his head was more than enough. Burning my hair off was overkill.

After that I took the hint and shut the hell up. The awkward silence was pretty grating, but the guy got up after a while and limped off. I didn't know why I did it, but I shouted as he left. "They track you through your pocket registration. They own restaurants around here, and once you buy stuff they know where you are."

He turned around and I backed up, lighthouse at the ready, but he just went on his way. Guess not roasting me was his way of saying thanks. Groaning, I got up and limped back home.

When I opened the door of my apartment I slumped onto the couch. I checked to make sure the money was still with me, then went to sleep. I'd register for the test tomorrow.


	2. Part 1, Chapter 2

We were lining up to go in to the preliminary testing ground to cull the useless regulars when I saw the guy who'd charred off my hair. Skinheads weren't uncommon, but it was weird enough to get a couple of glances. I definitely saw the guy smirk before going in. I looked over and saw that I'd be going to go into another prelim testing ground. When I got in a voice read out the rules in a mechanical voice: a deathmatch with 30 regulars until the total got cut down to 8. We'd all go in and take positions, then start fighting when the signal went off.

Times like these I really thought that the tower was ruled by thick muscled idiots. Who the hell rigged the tests in favour of the friggin fishermen. Luckily I was one of the last ones to go in and had plenty of time to make alliances in the waiting room. I approached a guy sitting on the ground. He seemed like the right kind of guy. Strong, lean, but not spectacular. Spectacular meant that they wouldn't need me to cover their asses, or at least they didn't think they'd need me. This kind of guy was ordinary, but seemed like decent fighter. I sat down next to him and started talking in a low voice. Never went well if people figured out we were in an alliance.

"Jeez, the odds are really in favour of the fishermen huh?" I said in a low voice. The guy looked around. I continued "I'm a light bearer. Seems like the only way to pass is to work together."

The guy smiled in return. "Sounds nice. I'm a scout, name's Cosmos. Don't really have any special fighting abilities but I can keep the regulars away from you. I think we need some more."

I tilted my hand in that so-so gesture everyone uses when they're afraid of going too far in any direction. "One, maybe two more. Anymore than that and we definitely get betrayed halfway in. And none of the strong ones, they won't need our help."

Cosmos nodded tentatively. "One more then. I'll leave it up to you." He looked back down as if nothing happened.

By now, there were only 25 people left. I avoided the chick standing in the corner and made a beeline for another regular fingering his spear nervously. This guy looked pretty young, not just in terms of size but in terms of confidence. This was probably his first time taking the test and that was good. Guys on edge are perfect to befriend. Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against chicks and girls. But in my experience the fishermen types of girls tended to have napolean complexes from being looked down on, and usually lashed out at you if you tried to offer help. Of course, they were also too proud to accept it. I gotta admit the chick in the corner did catch my eye. She had long brown hair and green eyes, and tight leather gear that clung to her body. But I didn't have time to admire her. I walked up to the spearbearer and gave him the same spiel I gave cosmos. He was called Yaan and he accepted my proposal without question. Suddenly he stood up and I realized he had to go in. I quickly whispered to come to my position as soon as the test started, and watched him leave. I told the same thing to Cosmos and could only wait we trickled into the battlefield. When I got in, I swore quietly so no one might hear me.

That was the thing with plans. They. Fell. Apart.

When I got in I realized why they made us go in one at a time. They were guiding us to a specific place in a maze. We were blinded until the signal went off, and right away I knew that I was in trouble. Luckily, my lighthouse still worked and I worked out the layout right away. I was also smart enough to register both Yaan and Cosmos on my lighthouse in the waiting room so I knew where they were. I just didn't know how to get to them without bumping into the other 27. For Zahard's sake, we were on opposite sides if the maze, almost like the admins had deliberately set us apart. I quickly sent messages to their pockets and gave them directions. As for me, I hopped onto my lighthouse and floated to the ceiling. The admins weren't dumb enough to let me hover over the maze, but no one ever looked up, especially in situations like this, and so long I didn't move to catch any attention, I was much safer than them.


	3. Part 1, Chapter 3

I tried to direct Cosmos and Yaan to meet each other first, but had to make Yaan backtrack due to a fight between four fishermen. Cosmos was steadily moving towards me, but I had to make him go through a couple of spearbearer and even a fisherman. I couldn't tell him anything about the opponent apart from their position, but I didn't need to. Cosmos definitely had the way of the prey down pat. When in doubt run the hell away. He dodged past the two spearbearers without swinging, and only engaged the fisherman for a few strokes before running past him. Their stream of info wasn't constant of course. I'd have moments where regulars ran right under me, and even one point where a scout and a spearbearer had a fight right beneath me. I tweaked the odds in the favour of the scout, so the spearbearer wouldn't misfire and accidentally break my lighthouse. It was simple to slow him down slightly so the scout could slip past his defences.

By the time Cosmos got to my position 20 regulars were left. The good thing was Yaan was alive. What wasn't so great was how he was still on the other side of the testing arena. But now I had Cosmos and I could move without the risk of getting killed by the random regular. We both perched on my lighthouse, and it was a close thing that neither of us fell. We only had to fight once. Even with the movement we only caught one fisherman's gaze. But, with Cosmos' speed and my lighthouse support, we made decent work and killed him in 3 minutes.

I'd taken my eye off the ball, and when I looked at my lighthouse, I was shocked to see Yaan in the middle of a fight between 10 regulars. A 5 on 5 position battle.

Great. Second tip about plans, don't bother making them. How the hell did he even get caught up in that? I'd told him specifically not to get caught up in a bloodbath. This did have an upside. Excluding the 10 that were concentrated in that area, there were only 5 regulars left, and 3 of them were just staying in one place. I set me and Cosmos down, and we started running towards the bloodbath. I'd made promises with Yaan, and if that promise got broken and he lived, that might be an extra enemy to look out for. Coming to the rescue might even make him adore me more. Looking at my lighthouse, I saw that Yaan was on the back lines, but still throwing was a good mix of positions on both sides. Each actually had a lightbearer directing the whole battle. It was even, and it was a wonder that only a fisherman from both sides had died.

The good news was that we got there before Yaan died. The bad news was that they were on the wrong side, and while backstabbing people might be effective in getting rid of people, angry teammates would definitely be effective in getting rid of me. They had actually reached a stalemate. The spearbearers were down to their last spears, and weren't going to throw their weapon away anytime soon. The frontliners had stopped fighting and having an official staredown. Up above, both lightbearers were exerting a weak field on the opposing side, but they were wearing out as well.

Backstabbing people really isn't my style. For one thing, I can't run away fast enough after I've done it. But we could definitely get rid of 2, maybe three of the regulars, and then the other 4 over there would help us out. I was a lightbearer, but that didn't mean I was weaponless. I'd definitely lose out against anyone in a straight fight, but since when did straight fights decide anything? Fairnes wasn't exactly the common on this guardian forsaken floor. I got out my khukri that I had stolen from a fisherman on the 10th floor, then sent a message to Yaan, telling him to throw his spear and distract the fishermen while I slashed at the lightbearer's neck. Cosmos had dashed to the frontline and killed off a fisherman. After that, it was 6 on 2 and no one on our side died.


	4. Part 1, Chapter 4

Yaan came up to me. "Nice plan. You're actually pretty smart."

Didn't know if that was meant to be a compliment or not, so I didn't think about it. What I needed to think about was the remaining 11 regulars. 3 of them would have to drop out before the test was over, and there were three other regulars here. I caught Cosmos' eye and we both nodded. I stabbed the fisherman in his side as he was moving off, and Cosmos took care of a scout. The last regular was a spearbearer, and he backed up before throwing his spear at us. I used my lighthouse to make it go off target and Cosmos started attacking him. I looked over at Yaan and saw that he was staring wide-eyed at the carnage.

What was going on? He'd just helped slaughter people with overwhelming odds in his favour, and now he was gonna chuck up at more deaths?

"Th-they were on our side!" Yaan stammered out. "Why'd you kill them?"

What the hell? This kid was climbing the tower and was yelling at me for betraying someone? If it could even be called betraying. No way would such a huge number of regulars stay together, especially with the majority of them being fishermen.

I was still staring at Yaan when Cosmos answered for me "There were 11, and if three more regulars died we'd move on. There were three right here."

Yaan'd stopped backing away like a tiny shinheuh looking at a live steel eel and stood his ground. "We could've worked together to eliminate three more. If they were wandering around by themselves there's no way the 6 of us could've lost."

The hell was with this guy? Did he think that killing three people who we'd been with for 5 minutes was any worse than killing three people that we'd known for 2? Zahard almighty this kid was dumb. Luckily, my big mouth was stopped by the labyrinth going up in smoke. The room we were in was now empty except for 5 other people standing around the training ground and a lift that had been on the left wall. We heard the voice announce that the lift would only be making one trip, and we rushed over before it closed behind us.

We'd gone down a couple of levels to where the next round would take place. Along the way I'd gotten to know some of the remaining 8. I was a little disappointed to realize that I wasn't the only lightbearer who came up with the "climb on top of the lighthouse and hide from everyone" strategy. There were 2 others who had as well. At least there were some smart people here. Too bad they were all lightbearers, and none of the other position holders seemed particularly smart. All in all, we were a few weapons short of a full arms inventory if you know what I mean.

Also learnt that there was not a single wave controller in our group, so we were screwed if it came to a group test. Then again, after having my head shaved by the last wave controller I'd met, I guess it wasn't such a big loss. I Ignored the self-righteous looks Yaan gave me along the way. If the kid still hadn't learnt that there weren't any rankers who started with the moral high ground in an argument, he was better off failing. If he didn't, he'd only be betrayed like every other innocent who trusted someone.

When we got to the next testing ground we saw regulars come out from two corridors. Guess that made for 24 people altogether. Also saw the test admin. You could tell it was him because he walked around like he owned the place (some admins actually did own the land around the testing ground) without needing a hook or needle to make his point. I walked past him and smelt chili oil and saw a badge in the shape of a chicken wing. Great. I tried to be nice to rankers and all, but it's hard when a certain admin is a fan of chicken dipped in oil so hot it soaks up the shinsoo around it. Why couldn't his people see the beauty of fried chicken? So crispy and juicy... He also looked like a baseball fan. He hadn't even talked and I'd already found two reasons to hate the guy.

"Welcome to the next test." He said. His voice was high pitched and sounded like a kid. Throw that in with his short, round figure and we've got a humpty-dumpty in here; who could blame the regulars for smirking at him.

"I am the test administrator, Mule Love." Hearing that I perked up. The Mule clan was famous for wonsulas, and if this guy was one, he'd actually be strong. "Your next test will be one to test your speed. It is a simple race against time, from one point to another. The distance between the two will be 100 metres. You will go in one at a time. Those who finish within the time limit will go on to the next test." With that, he called in the first regular and we waited.

A hundred metre dash? What the hell was up with that? Fine for the fishermen and scouts, not so good for the average lightbearer. Why was there never a knowledge based test? Or a flying test? Maybe I'd run away to another district and start again when I failed. It'd be a pain to do more research on the restaurants there, but it'd be way harder to avoid the loan sharks in this area now they'd found me once.

Cursing Zahard and all the other clan heads, I walked to the door. When I got in I stopped, then laughed my ass off. The ruler of this floor might be a lot of things, but he sure as hell loved screwing with regulars.

It was another maze.

I pulled out the schematics on my lighthouse and looked before the start signal went off. Love had been telling the truth when he said the two points were 100 metres apart. He hadn't mentioned that the distance we'd have to run was at least 5 times that. I grinned at the thought of the fishermen who swaggered in, thinking that they'd just strengthen their body and finish first. Felt sorry for spearbearers and wave controllers. They'd have just been wandering until they got taken out when time ran out. Scouts would have a decent chance. I hoped Cosmos made it. He and I clicked. Not that it was one of those romanticized partnerships that we always read in books, but we could work together, and in this world that was the best I could hope for.

The signal went off and I started running. We had 15 minutes. Plenty of time for someone who knew the route. I jogged and got there in less than half the time given. But when I got there, I stared again. The wall right next to the exit had a huge hole in it. I walked forward and looked through the hole. There was an identical one right in front of it, and another one right in front of that. Someone had gotten desperate and blasted his way to the exit! I didn't know who the hell did it, but I sure as hell hoped I wasn't against him.


	5. Part 1, Chapter 5

I ran to the exit and came into the waiting room. There were 4 people there: the arsonist who burnt my hair off sitting in a corner spacing out; a pale skinned kid with blond hair, he was sitting on the ground and looked way too cheerful for his own good; a plain looking woman with curly brown hair reading something on her box, she had a nice skirt that flared out mid-thigh; and a huge six-footer that was just standing there fiddling with his pocket. One of these guys had the power to blow up specially shinsoo strengthened walls. My money was on the huge fisherman. He didn't look smart enough to finish the maze in time, and definitely looked like he had the power and weapons to back it up. His clothes also looked in expensive, maybe one of those stuck-up bastards from the 10 Great Clans.

I still don't know why I felt like it, but I decided to try again with the arsonist. I went up to where he was and sat down. Tried drawing him out by standing there but he didn't say anything. Should've known. These strong, silent types take pride in their strength and silence. Take that away and what do they have?

"How does a wave controller make it through that maze without any help?" I asked, then yelled as he shaved my stubble off, and three layers of skin in the process. That got some laughs from the other regulars there.

"So I guess that would be blowing down the walls until you found the exit." I continued, then ducked as he sent another tongue of flame in my direction.

"Hey, watch it." The huge regular grunted. I looked around and saw that the wall he had been leaning on had been scorched.

He reached for his arms inventory and pulled out suspendium-edged knuckle dusters. Definitely from a great clan; wasn't anyone here rich enough to afford even impure suspendium "You wanna die now rather than in the next test be my guest." He walked towards the arsonist, but stopped as another regular came in. She stopped at what she must've thought was two regulars ganging up on one scrawny little guy.

I stepped down. It wasn't like the arsonist was going to attack me if I kept away, and if the fisherman attacked the arsonist in a fit of idiocy and the two of them killed each other then all the better for me.

I went over to the blond haired kid and flopped onto the ground. Hopefully this guy wouldn't want to chop off my eyebrows if I started to talk.

"Zahard almighty, that wave controller's touchy." I said

The kid grinned. "Probably not a good idea to share a room with him. Did he shave your head for you?"

"Yeah." I grimaced "And it's not like I was annoying him or anything."

"Probably should've taken the hint." The kid replied. "I'm Nal-Kae."

"I'm awesome." I replied, and we both laughed. Hoped this kid wasn't as dumb as Yaan, it'd make me feel much better if I needed to drop him.

Another person appeared and Cosmos came in. I smiled and waved him over.

He sat down next to me and I said "This is Cosmos. Probably the most agile guy here."

Nal-Kae smiled in return and Cosmos sat down next to me. "Yeah, lot of good that is against the monster who blew holes through that wall."

That killed the mood. How'd I forget about that? Having my half my face burnt off was stimulating, but it shouldn't have been enough to make me forget about that monster who blew holes into the wall. By now the waiting room was getting pretty full. Guess the admins hadn't accounted for a shortcut being made. I pointed out the people that could've done it, basically the arsonist and the fisherman, and looked around for Yaan. He wasn't there. "Did you go after Yaan or before him?" I asked

Cosmos turned. "I went after him. Wh-" Then it hit him. "Shit. Not surprising though, that test wasn't suited for spearbearers."

"I guess." I responded. It really wasn't fair. What kind of tower let insane arsonists go up but pushed innocent kids back into the jaws of those swindling loan sharks. Hoped the kid would find someone else to take him up next time he took the test. Or better yet, find a job and live out the rest of his innocence before trying again.

Nal-Kae was looking at us wondering what was going on. He just looked so young and naive with those wide, pitch black eyes. Almost like-, well, never mind.

"I just hoped that the huge hole some monster blasted in the maze might help him." Cosmos continued.

I nodded. "But there's no way that guy could've climbed the tower." I added bitterly. "Idiots like him only get betrayed."

There was an awkward silence after this. I was surprised. It wasn't like me to kill the mood like this; that was the arsonist's job. I tried to bring the conversation back to life. "Nal-Kae, how long've you been here."

Nal-Kae jerked his head up. "Uh, this is only my first time actually."

Wow, didn't expect that. He seemed pretty capable and confident.

"You from a high-up clan or something?"

Nal-Kae's clouded over. "Not exactly. It's kind of hard to explain."

Didn't see how it was too hard, you were either from a notable clan or you weren't. But this topic seemed private, and for once I didn't push.


	6. Part 1, Chapter 6

Just then, Love came in and said "Congratulations to all regulars who have passed. I looked up and saw that there were 17 people here. Guess the hole in the wall really made it easy. Were they gonna continue with the normal tests or would there be an extra one?

"Please come with me for lunch. I have personally provided for the lunch. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will."

We followed him eagerly. All the stress of the past rounds caught up to me, and I couldn't wait to eat something, even if it was just cheap jjampong or ramen. When we got to the eating hall, I stopped dead.

Well, fuck. Guess that just showed how tired I was when I didn't pick up on the fact that the admin had prepared the dishes himself. Every table had huge platters of food. Unfortunately there was a cloud hot, eye-watering smoke.

The only thing there was spicy chicken.

Dammit! The hell was wrong with this test admin. I sat down with Cosmos and Nal-Kae who started digging in. Eyeing the chicken for some time, I scraped off as much of the sauce as I could and ate with watering eyes. I would never forget this humiliation of being forced to burn my insides. When I became a ranker I swore I would become stronger than Love and force as much fried chicken down his throat before he died.

Nal-Kae smiled at me, and asked "I guess you won't be wanting your chicken."

"How can you stand that?" I asked him in disbelief. "Do you like having your tongue burnt off?"

"Well, you've had your hair and face burnt off, you might as well finish the job" Nal-Kae laughed.

I threw a chicken at him and he swallowed it. Cheeky little bastard.

Cosmos laughed. "You seemed pretty harsh on that Yaan kid. There're plenty more idiots out there like him. Got any particular reason?"

I tensed, then just shrugged. "Nah. Stupidity just gets on my nerves. Can't stand kids."

Cosmos threw me a knowing glance, looked pointedly at Nal-Kae, then went back to eating.

Well, even if he did guess there was no way he'd know. Just so long he didn't bring it up I'd be fine.

Love came in and said "Greetings. I hope you enjoyed your lunch." Right, maybe we'd also enjoy getting our fingers burnt as well "and you will be pleased to note that the next test will be the last one today. Tomorrow there will be one more, after which the remaining regulars will pass to the next floor. When you want to, please go through this door where you may take the next test. Also note that there will be only one regular allowed for every 15 minutes. There will also be a limit of one regular in the testing ground at a time." With that, he walked away.

Did that mean we could just take the test whenever we wanted just so long it was today? What did that mean? Did we just go in? I wasn't the only one wondering about this. The regulars were all looking at each other. Everyone wanted someone else to go try it out. Go figure. The fishermen were all up for showing off in a fight where it suited 'em, but get them to do something they didn't know about and they got all scared and got someone else who had the balls they didn't to show them what to do.

Smirking, I got up and went inside.

Yeah. In retrospect that wasn't a good idea. I always did have a big mouth, also had a bigger ego. Going in first definitely wasn't a good idea, but I've always been easy to manipulate like that.

When I went in, I was in a corridor and there was another door in front of me. A mechanical voice told me to go into one of the three rooms in front of me. I stared down the corridor and saw that there were two other doors, one on each side of me, around 20 metres away. Damn rankers, wasteful as ever. They had all this room for extra tests but hung onto living space like a bulldog holds onto its meat. When I went in I saw a huge empty pit, with pipes leading into it. It looked like a square 20 metres across, but around 40 metres deep. That spicy chicken freak was on the other side.

"The task is simple." He said in that baby-voice of his "Using whatever means necessary, pop the ball at the bottom of the pit. Once you are done, you may go through the door where you will be directed to your room for the night. Good luck.

By now, I'd learnt better not to trust the admins in what they said. I knew there wasn't a time limit, they hadn't mentioned any, and admins could only hide rules, not lie. There had to be a glitch somewhere, but I couldn't see it. There didn't seem to be anything coming out of the pipes. I shrugged, and got onto my lighthouse. Shit happened no matter how well you prepared. Might as well just get it over with. When I got down there I slashed at the ball with my khukri and braced myself, but nothing happened except for the ball popping without any resistance. Frowning, I got back on my lighthouse and floated up, turning around slowly in case there was anything that came at me but nothing happened. Maybe the admins had known we'd realize how much fun screwing with us could be, and now they were just finding more ways to trick us. What the hell? Oh well. If it let me pass, then I wasn't gonna complain.


	7. Part 1, Chapter 7

I got back up and walked through the other door and found myself in what looked like a hotel. There was a list with our names there and what rooms we'd be in. I went up the stairs to my room and looked around when I got inside. It was twice as expensive as any place I'd been in. There was no way they'd allow regulars to dirty this place with their lowly presence in here on a daily basis, so I was pretty sure one of the tests was an extra. I actually felt a little grateful to the guy who blew up the maze for making the rankers spend more. I'd make sure to trash the rooms as much as I could without getting test points deducted before I left. There was a TV there and I turned it on, just for the novelty, but I soon got sick of it. Just more bullshit from the ruler. I made my lighthouse do a scan of the room, and there wasn't anything special apart from a deck of cards that I pocketed.

I went back down just in time to see both Cosmos and Nal-Kae come through. When they saw me their faces lit up as bright as the lights on the ceiling of this floor, and ran over to me.

"Gee, why the welcome?" I asked. "You didn't really think I'd fail an easy task like that did you?"

Nal-Kae really looked like one of those pet dogs that the rich kids from the great clans had. "We heard you scream! We thought you died." He looked like he was itching to hug me. Good thing he didn't or I'd have tossed him off. The only person whom I let do that was gone.

Cosmos grinned "Guess that was another one of the admin's tricks."

Nal-Kae nodded his head vigorously. "Maybe there was some trap that we just didn't trigger."

I laughed. "All three of us get lucky and not trigger a trap? Not likely. I take it you guys both went at once?"

Nal-Kae nodded. "Was the test the same for both of you? We had to go into a pit and pop a ball?"

"Yeah." I said. "Good thing I had my lighthouse with me. I could just sit on it and come back up."

"Yeah, just ran down there and back up." Cosmos said as he walked towards the list with their rooms.

"What'd you do?" I asked Nal-Kae. He just smiled and shrugged at me, then followed Cosmos to his room. I wasn't pissed at this lack of trust. I was glad that this kid wasn't as trusting as Yaan, to actually give away his abilities.

Afterwards we went to my room. Would've loved a balcony with a view of the whole district, but I guess that might've been hard since we were underground. We started playing cards. Nal-Kae was terrible at it; anyone could see when he was bluffing or lying. Cosmos always took advantage of this but I let the kid off a couple of times. Even let him win once or twice. There were some drinks in the room as well, and after making sure that they were freebies, we all got a little drunk as we played.

Out of curiousity, I looked at my lighthouse to see how many regulars had come through. Dissapointed to see to see that eight more had made it, and they were all in their rooms. Guess this test might not narrow down the competition that much. Then I looked over to the testing ground and got a shock. The testing grounds had a huge level of su in all of them. It'd be hard to move around in that, even for a fisherman with body strengthening.

I showed Cosmos and Nal-Kae, and we wondered about it for a while. Then I laughed as I figured out the trick in this test.

The pipes were actually pumping in, or gradually compressing the shinsoo in the area. It was one of those tests that tested the balls of the regulars. The more we waited, the harder it'd be. The screams were fake of course, and they were just meant to test who had balls to go in. Probably wouldn't be many fishermen left tomorrow. They always worked as a pack, and there was no way they'd go in unless they all decided to.

For the first time in a while, I felt happy. I drank a little more and kept on playing. It's a good thing we didn't bet money or I'd have owed as much money to Cosmos as I did

It was night, and we'd played and drank, even Nal-Kae, and we weren't thinking that clearly.

Cosmos lounged on the ground and asked "So why were you so harsh about that Yaan kid? You looked like you wanted to kill him when he overreacted back in the first round."

Nal-Kae looked at us. "Who's Yaan? You mentioned him before."

I sighed. "Just a naive kid who's never gonna make it in the tower 'till he grows the fuck up."

Cosmos raised an eyebrow. "So? What's the big deal with one more idiot?"

I glared at him "Want me to tell you a story?" I asked heavily. "Fine. It's not rare, it happens all the time and no one cares about it. Why not tell you guys a story you've all heard before?

Once upon a time there were two brothers, one a couple of years older than the other. They trusted people and they expected to be trusted in return. One day, they trusted someone they shouldn't have and the both of them got taken away into slavery. Then, the younger brother, out of complete fucking altruism, helped the older brother get away, and like a fucking coward, he fucking ran for the rest of his fucking life!" I ended up yelling and accidentally lost control of my lighthouse. It flew about, as drunkenly as I was, and I threw the bottle at the door as hard as I could. It shattered and left an awkward silence.

Yeah. I really was that drunk. Couldn't believe I'd said it.

"Happy now?" I glared at that nosy dick. "Get out of my room. We can still work together, but if you mention this again I'll hack off your head in your sleep."

After they'd left, I remembered that I still had to ruin the room as much as possible, but I just didn't feel like it. Instead, I walked to the bed and collapsed on it. I was probably asleep before the two of them'd gone to their rooms.


	8. Part 1, Chapter 8

I woke up he next day to an alarm that made me think the arsonist'd gotten into my room and started burning my head off. Then I realized that it was my hangover. I got up and headed for the bathroom. Must've tripped as many times as I'd failed the 20th floor tests. When I got in, I immediately took a shower and woke up as the sensation of compressed shinsoo ran down my skin. I even drank some and it cleared my head a little. I still couldn't think properly but I didn't think I'd be falling over anytime soon. I stood there for a while, thinking about last night. I shouldn't have yelled at them like that, but their fault for picking at old wounds. Damn. Knew making friends was a bad idea; Losing them really hurt. I laughed. Since when did they become friends. I'd always knew that our 'friendship' was just one of convenience. When did I decide that I wanted to climb with them? Did I make a friendship based on games of cards and alcohol? That did sound like friendships: random, pointless, shallow and painful. I grinned. Not like I was the only regular who'd lost a family member. We were all pretty shallow, thinking that the loss of someone important to us meant anything.

As I got out of the shower, I got another alarm, only this time I was realized that there were words to the alarm, not just noise.

"Dear regular, this is another warning to please report to the reception area in 5 minutes or you will be disqualified."

Shit. Must've been given a warning when I first got up but it just didn't register. I quickly put on my clothes and ran down to the reception area. That was a mistake and I immediately fell down three steps out the door, just adding to my headache. Hoped there'd be time to recover before the test.

I got down there, and saw Cosmos and Nal-Kae together.

"Hey,"Nal-Kae said, holding up some bread. "we figured you'd oversleep after all you drank last night so we got you some breakfast."

I stopped. Was the bread poisoned or something? Or was I seeing things because of my hangover?

"We all do dumb things that we regret when we're drunk." Cosmos said. "Got you some special soda as well. Gives extra shinsoo resilience."

I couldn't accept it. Not after last night. Not after seeing what I might feel when I lost them again.

I shook my head. Then stood away from them. Luckily, I didn't have much time to brood.

Love came in and said "I hope you had a good rest. This will be the last test. Whoever passes this test will move on to the next floor."

As he spoke, I looked again at Cosmos and Nal-Kae. Nal-Kae was smiling again; he always did, except for when I yelled at him. He looked way too carefree for their own good. Of course, even the arsonist might've been excited at the prospects. I looked around but the arsonist looked as uncaring as ever. Cosmos seemed the same as well, interested but alert, almost like last night hadn't happened. It would've been so good if that'd been true, but the world didn't work like that. You couldn't undo things, you could only move on with whatever burdens you picked up along the way.

I heard Love say something again and I snapped out of it. It wasn't like me to space out like that. "Due to some unforeseen circumstances, you will be joined by more regulars from two of the nearby testing grounds."

I suddenly noticed that there were quite a few people here, and I didn't recognize more than half of them. One really did catch my eye. He had a reddish brown cloak and none of us could see his face. Damn, I really had spaced out. I didn't even size up the people who'd passed the last round. The curly haired lightbearer with that skirt was here. So was the arsonist and the huge fishermen who the arsonist had almost burnt in the waiting room yesterday. There was a red skinned spearbearer. He was huge, with muscles that was better suited for a fisherman. There was an olive skinned woman that I didn't notice. She had long green hair and had a hook. Probably another one of those Napoleon complex women. There were 6 more but before I could finish, Love led us into a large circular room, around 40 metres across.

"The test is simple. You will be put into pairs and fight another random pair. The people who wins will proceed to the next floor. The pairs have been randomly chosen."

He pulled out his lighthouse and read out the pairs. Nal-Kae got paired up with that lightbearer girl in the skirt. Turns out she was called Laesa. Pronounced leesa. Nice name. Cosmos some wave controller called Anusa. The huge fisherman (Hyrum) got paired up with some random spearbearer called Nuviel. She seemed alright, not too aggressive. They'd make a strong team.

Then, Love said "Kryst and Nathan." I turned around wondering who Nathan was, then barely controlled myself from running up to that freaking baseball freak and get him to change teams. Nathan was the arsonist's name.

Fuck.

I didn't listen to the rest of the groups, I was too busy raging inside. I finished just in time to see Love assign the 10th and last pair, then told us to get prepare ourselves. The first two pairs who'd be fighting was me and the arsonist against a scout and a spearbearer. It should've been easy: lightbearer and wave controller right? Not so easy if it was lightbearer and insane pyro-fucking-maniacal wave controller who'd never spoken a word other than "shut the hell up or I'll burn you".

We had to go out in 15 minutes and we had to get a couple of things sorted.

"Hey, Nathan" I said carefully "We have to talk if we're going to work together." I was ready to leap out of the way in case he felt like burning my face off again, but luckily he wasn't completely retarded.

"Agreed" He said without looking at me "How are your close-range combat skills?"

I relaxed now it seemed like I was allowed to talk in his high 'n mighty presence.

"I'm a lightbearer, so it's not like I can strengthen my body or anything like that. I have a weapon that I can swing around, but I'd rather run than fight." Maybe I wasn't putting up the most optimistic view, but it was best he knew me for the coward I was from the start and not realize who I was until we'd form attachments. Not that we would anyways.

Nathan nodded. "My combat skills are little better. We shall have to make sure the scout does not advance far or our attacks will be rendered useless. How are you at supporting wave controllers?"

"Never done it before." I admitted.

Nathan nodded. "I thought as much. Practice now."

He conjured up a baang and said "Imagine putting a pressure field on my baang."

I did and he nodded. "That will be sufficient. Try two."

Wow, he must've been from a notable family if he could already control two. We tried it, and it only took a couple of minutes for me to get the technique down.

"Now, try and change the direction my baang flies in. Imagine you are exerting a pressure field on my baang, but only on one side."

He released it slowly, and when I tried, it zoomed to the right and would've blown up a wall if he hadn't released it.

He looked at me. "Impressive. I will release mine at a higher speed. Try to make it go in a circle around us."

He did so and so did I. I didn't see what was so hard about this, it was just a pressure field but on a baang instead of a person. In the ten minutes we had I could make both his baangs whiz about as I wanted. We really made a good team.

"The scout and spearbearer will try to rush us, to nullify our advantageous pairing." Nathan said. "Use a pressure field to slow them while I attack them. If you can, try and use your lighthouse to skew the spear's accuracy. I will only use one baang at a time. Using two will take them by surprise if the need arises."

I nodded. This guy seemed pretty smart.

**A/N: Ok, I think I'm going to put this story on indefinite hiatus. The reason being that there are others stories I want to write, but I would be very busy juggling four stories at once. Of course, I wouldn't mind doing so if there is anyone who doesn't want this. If I don't get a message or review saying this in the next few days, then this story will be discontinued.**

**Thanks**


	9. Part 1, Chapter 9

**A/N: Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to update this story anymore, but I'd written quite a bit more as a sort of reserve, so why not post everything else that I've written? The next few chapters are just going to be battles, and introduce a lot of characters that won't come up in the next few arcs. **

We received the signal and went outside. Right away, the spearbearer threw spears while the scout ran at us with a hook. I used a pressure field on him, but he was still able to dodge Nathan's flames. The spears had almost reached us but it was easy for me to knock them off course.

"Kryst. Strengthen my baang." Nathan said. I did so and he sent three quick blasts. The scout thought he dodged them, but Nathan made them detonate early and the increased su made an explosion that definitely got him. The scout stumbled back as the spearbearer rushed forward.

"Again." Nathan ordered and he attacked the spearbearer.

But the spearbearer wasn't completely idiotic and stabbed at all of them, making them detonate without hurting him. He was getting close and I was getting nervous.

"Make this one swerve and hit him in the side." Nathan muttered. He conjured up a baang with lots of myun, but not much su. It was obviously meant to intimidate. He wanted the spearbearer to suddenly lunge at it so he wouldn't block it when I made the baang swerve. The spearbearer fell for it. He lunged forward, and I made the baang swerve and added a bit of su to it for good measure. It blew up on his right side, and scorched his ribs and face.

I winced slightly at the smell of burning flesh and the moans of the spearbearer, but you had to hurt people if you wanted to climb. Love declared our victory and we walked out.

Nal-Kae ran over. "By the guardian that was amazing! How did you work together with that arsonist? You burnt them all in less than a minute!"

Cosmos laughed. "I gotta agree with Nal-Kae. That was brilliant. You two worked really well together."

I turned around and saw Nathan standing behind me.

"Why are you still here?" I asked. I guess that must've come out a little harsh.

"Has the social friendly lightbearer left us?" He asked. His lips twitched, then walked off to the balcony that let us look at the pair battles.

I looked up at the fights that would take place, and saw, thankfully, that Cosmos and Nal-Kae didn't have to fight each other. That was something, maybe they'd both get through. But maybe it was better that didn't, I was acting all weird around them. The next battle was the huge, rich fisherman Hyrum with those knuckle dusters and his spearbearer partner Nuviel. He was up against one guy in a long brown cloak and a short, green haired chick. The fight started and both Hyrum and his partner moved forward. Well, his spearbearer partner moved forward. He used a strategy that suited his brain and charged forward as fast as he could without thinking. The guy in the cloak moved and went for the spearbearer, leaving the green haired chick to deal with Hyrum. He started jabbing at her quickly but she could dodge them all. She ducked down and almost punched that huge idiot but he had good footwork too and they ended up in a stalemate.

Meanwhile, the hooded figure was effectively blocking off the Nuviel's spears and he forced the spearbearer into a 1 on 1 fight. Hyrum's team didn't have any sort of co-ordination. What kind of idiot gave up his support and let the spearbearer get in a 1 on 1 fight with another fisherman. The hooded guy did seem like a fisherman; the two handed sword he was swinging it like it was nothing sort of gave it away. There was no way he'd continue climbing with a huge sword like that, it'd get slowed down too much by the shinsoo. But for a 20th floor test it seemed fine. Nuviel was getting pushed back, and it was only because of her longer reach that the battle hadn't been lost.

Back with Hyrum, he and the green haired chick were still lunging at each other, trying to break each other's defences. The chick was faster, but Hyrum could take her out in one hit and she knew it. She was just buying time for her partner to finish off Nuviel and help her attack Hyrum. She also had to stop Hyrum from helping Nuviel. Once the two of them co-ordinated their attacks, they could easily beat their opponents. The green woman was doing a decent job of pissing off Hyrum though, so it wasn't likely that he'd start strategizing. Typical fisherman. If you lost control of your emotions you lost the battle. That was why teaming up with someone you cared about would never work. It'd be impossible to concentrate and fight at the same time.

There was a flash, and suddenly Nuviel staggered back. The spearbearer'd lost against the fisherman (surprise, surprise) and she was stumbling backwards, waving her spear around like a granny trying to swat a fly. Hyrum looked around and was about to run to help her, (yeah, now he cared about teamwork) but the green haired chick suddenly used her hand to stabbed him in the stomach. He yelled and fell on the ground.

"The winners for this round are Blade and Naeyeon." Love annouanced. I guessed that the hooded figure with a sword was Blade, and Naeyeon was the green haired chick.


	10. Part 1, Chapter 10

"The next fight shall be between Nal-Kae and Laesa against Daeron and Cladius." Love continued.

I looked at Nal-Kae's opponents and didn't know whether to hope Nal-Kae failed or passed. They were up against a fisherman and a scout. The fisherman wasn't one of those Hyrum types. He seemed sharp and didn't seem to need to rely on huge biceps. The scout was tall, but that was the only remarkable thing about him. Apart from that he seemed completely normal.

When the fight started I realized that I had no idea what Nal-Kae's fighting style was, or even what position he took. When the signal started, both Daeron and Cladius moved to go around Nal-Kae and attack Laesa. Nal-Kae fell back right next to Laesa and got out a needle. This didn't stop Daeron and Cladius, and they sped up to try and mow down both of them. Nal-Kae charged at them but the scout was faster and he got beneath Nal-Kae and punched Nal-Kae in the stomach before kicking him in the face. The fisherman was about to go forward but stopped for some reason. I suddenly saw he was bleeding, and so was the scout. I looked at my lighthouse, and saw that Laesa was throwing darts. This wouldn't stop them but it gave Nal-Kae enough time to recover and fall back.

Shit. This didn't look good. Nal-Kae might even die. I'd kill both of them afterwards if they did that. I never thought of how angry I had just gotten and how irrational it was, I just knew that I would kill them if anything happened to Nal-Kae.

Laesa was shouting something at Nal-Kae, and he was looking back, almost like Laesa was telling him to do something he didn't want to. Then the scout suddenly rushed up to him and kicked his kneecap making him fall to the ground. For some reason, Laesa had gotten up onto her lighthouse and was hovering 3 metres above the ground.

That cowardly bitch! I would definitely make her suffer for abandoning Nal-Kae like that. I was clutching at the railing and might've jumped over into the stadium if Nal-Kae hadn't scrambled away and flew off.

Yeah, you heard me. He fucking flew.

How? He had huge, goddamn wings growing out of his back that's how.

No wonder he'd been vague about telling us how he'd gotten in and out of the pit. He couldn't just say "Yeah, I used the retractable wings that grow out of my shoulder blades and flew in and out of the pit."

Damn, that was impressive. They were 2 metres across, and grey. He didn't look like any sort of angel, but he sure as hell looked like some bird that could fly through shinsoo and kill stuff. The black needle, blond hair, white skin, grey wings really made him look like some shinheuh people'd pay chunks of suspendium to get.

Now both he and Laesa were airborn and they started evening the odds. The scout was fast, and deadly when it came to hand-to-hand, but was definitely screwed when his opponent could fly. The fisherman was more of a problem, especially since he wielded a reel inventory. Catching pesky shinheuh like this was exactly what the reel inventory was made for. Good thing this shinheuh had a lightbearer on his side with what seemed like unlimited darts. If only Hyrum were here, I'd get to see him get royally pissed off and raging. Even the sharp fisherman was annoyed by those constant interruptions. Nal-Kae was lunging at the scout, and dodging the scout's counters easily. It was hard to get any force behind a punch going directly upwards. But it seemed like they were still at a stalemate. Nal-Kae couldn't keep on swooping like that forever, and Laesa couldn't keep on throwing darts to keep off the fisherman like she had been.

Suddenly she yelled at Nal-Kae and he suddenly switched targets. He dodged the reel inventory sent out by the fisherman and started stabbing at him. Suddenly there was a huge pressure field that even I felt, and the fisherman froze. Nal-Kae dived down and thrust his needle through the fisherman's shoulders, chest and legs with quick thrusts I could hardly follow. The fisherman fell and started bleeding quickly. Nal-Kae stabbed him in the calfs again for good measure.

That soft idiot. He could've ended it in a second by stabbing the fisherman in the head, but he had to disable him without killing. I wasn't complaining though. The scout ran up to Nal-Kae, but was stopped by the pressure field as well and Nal-Kae stabbed him through the knees, thighs and feet.

"Winners," Love announced as Nal-Kae almost slipped and landed face first in the pool of blood, "Nal-Kae and Laesa."

Nal-Kae had put his shirt back on, and it was like his wings had never existed. He looked really disgusted, probably because that shirt had been taken out of the pool of blood he'd created. He must've felt pretty self-conscious about those wings if he would put on a shirt covered in blood. And it was pretty pointless anyways, the blood soaked through to his skin and everyone could see the wings wrap around his torso into a sort of feathery jacket.

As Nal-Kae came up I'd decided to stick with him no matter what happened. Right now, I didn't care if I lost him the next day, or if he got killed in the next year. I wanted to be right next to him and fly all the way to the top of the tower. I didn't know what I was doing or what I was feeling. Maybe I was still drunk from last night, but when he came up, I ran and hugged him. I was nervous. Maybe this'd all be a mistake and I'd end up dying because of him. But I knew that if I left him, I'd regret it almost as much as the loss of my brother.

I'd snuck a look at Laesa's darts a couple of weeks later and I found out how she'd exerted such a strong pressure field. Those darts were actually extensions of her lighthouse. The more of them were in the field, the stronger and larger her pressure field would become. The darts bounced the field off each other and made it much stronger than usual. They were aiming for the fisherman all along. As for why Nal-Kae could not only move but could fly in that strong a field, well, I only found that out after spending a decade or so with him.


	11. Part 1, Chapter 11

"The next fight is between Cosmos and Anusa, against Cassandra and Lok-Hyun."

The team Cosmos was against had a female fisherman, obviously Cassandra, and a lightbearer; he must've been Lok-Hyun.

Love gave the signal to start and both teams stood there. They stood there for a while. Any longer and they'd start circling each other, like those epic fight scenes you always saw in those stories. Then Anusa conjured up a baang and released it at Cassandra. At the same time Cosmos darted forward and was now using a needle and a hook at the same time.

He used the hook to sweep away Cassandra's defences and his needle to stab at her. But Lok-Hyun wasn't completely useless, and he had a couple of tricks up his sleeve as well. He got some grenades from his pocket and threw them at Cosmos. Cosmos was too good for that, and he backed up while the grenades exploded, then went back to attacking Cassandra. She was ready this time, but still got pushed back. Cosmos was fast and his hook kept on sweeping away her weapon while the needle forced her back. The guy was good, way better than I thought. He was easily pushing back a fisherman on even grounds. He'd be deadly in a dark maze with hiding spots and ambush points.

Meanwhile, Anusa (obviously a wave controller) was keeping Lok-Hyun occupied by just shooting baangs that swerved to attack him on three sides. The attacks were basic but he had to dodge and use his lighthouse to block the attacks and didn't have time to help Cassandra. Even if it'd been the two of them against Cosmos, they still probably would've lost. I looked over and Cassandra was on her back, Cosmos' needle at her throat.

Damn. It was over before I even realized. He was strong.

Lok-Hyun looked and realized it was over. He raised his hands in surrender, and Love intervened, announcing Cosmos' victory.

He walked up and we went over to him.

"That was really cool!" Nal-Kae said. "Couldn't believe how strong you actually were. You could probably beat whoever blew a hole in the maze!"

Cosmos laughed. "Yeah, and hiding those frickin magnificent wings is totally fine."

I smiled with them. "It'd be a close call between you and Nathan but I'd bet on you."

They looked at me. "Did it really not occur to you guys? It should've, especially after seeing him blow up our opponents. I thought it might've been Hyrum but I scanned his weapon with my knuckle duster and I also scanned the wall yesterday. There's no way he could've strengthened his body enough to destroy the wall, not after seeing that pathetic performance down there."

The regulars all suddenly muttered something, and I turned around to see Hyrum standing up and walking towards me. Did I mention I had a big mouth?

"You wanna repeat that you scrawny piece of shit?" Hyrum growled. He looked like one of those old grey buildings that were huge, but easy to knock down.

"I'm sorry, was anything I said back then not true?" I asked. "Did you gather strength from the guardian and actually knock down those walls? Did you not get your ass kicked by Blade and Naeyeon? Or maybe you used your family influences to-"

I got cut off as Hyrum swing his fist at me. I ducked and the knuckleduster ricocheted off the wall. Yeah, the day he broke down those walls was the day he'd become a ranker.

"Nice." I said. "You must've really been holding back just now; after all, didn't you knock down the walls of the maze?"

Ok. In retrosepct I should've shut the hell up. But I've always found dickheads tempting to piss off.

Electricity sparkled off his fists, and he started to punch me. His fist was a blur that I couldn't follow, but I didn't need to. People like him were so predictable when they were pissed, and I knew that he'd be aiming straight for my head. I sidestepped and slashed at him with my khukri. But this guy didn't just depend on his fists and he dodged quickly. Growling, he rushed forward again, and I did the same thing as last time. But this guy was fast, and he didn't leave any openings. I was about to use my lighthouse to blind him and counter when two needles pointed themselves at his throat.

I was amazed. Didn't think anyone'd risk attacking a huge guy packing all that firepower. Ok, maybe I'm not that smart when it comes down to other people. Nal-Kae and Cosmos had their weapons out and were glaring up at Hyrum. I laughed at the sight of a kid as young as Nal-Kae threatening a huge giant like Hyrum, but that was just fishermen for you; their bigger they seemed, the weaker they were.

I smiled at them. Maybe travelling in a group wasn't as bad as it seemed. Hyrum's face was redder than Nathan's fireballs, and stepped back. Then he dashed forward with a roar and would've smashed my head if I hadn't been alert. The explosion rang through the whole testing ground, getting Love's attention.

"Stop" He commanded. "Unauthorized fighting is not allowed. Any damage to the testing grounds will be deducted from your personal account."

I looked around, and saw that there was a sizable crater where Hyrum'd landed his punch. Maybe he did punch down the walls.

Glaring at me, Hyrum stalked off. I opened my mouth to say something, but Nathan punched me hard, and by the time I got my breath back Hyrum was out of earshot.

I turned to say something at Nathan, but shut up when I saw he was cradling a fiery baang in his palm.

I walked away to watch the last battle, but Nathan called out to me (yeah, he actually started a conversation) "If you wanted to know if destroyed the walls, you should have taken the opportunity when I allowed you to talk."

I turned back. "So did you?"

"Yes and no. The holes were already there when I came, but they were jagged and rough. I rounded them off and enlarged them. I thought it would have more dramatic an effect."

He turned and walked off, leaving me thinking that this guy wasn't as grim and death-obsessed as he tried to seem. He actually did have a sense of humor, even though it involved tricking all of the other regulars.

He'd definitely been holding back on the last test. I wondered how strong he really was.


	12. Part 1, Chapter 12

Love had come up, probably to give as an ass-whupping. Sure enough, he said "A fight like that could have distracted the two pairs fighting in the arena. Fortunately, the fight was already over when the bang from Hyrum's fists might've distracted them."

At first I was pretty amused at Love yelling at us for unauthorized fighting because it might've stopped the authorized fighting. Just another example of how authority in this tower meant everything, and overruled money, fame and justice; although, the first two usually came with authority. Justice was left out for some strange reason.

Then I realized that the fight had ended. It must've been even faster than my one. I looked, but couldn't see who had been fighting.

Love said "Would Nathan, Kryst, Laesa, Nal-Kae, Asuna, Cosmos, Blade, Naeyeon, Golofold, and Ayph-Ci please report to the hotel reception in 10 minutes. The rest of you may leave the testing ground through the lift." He gestured to the wall where a lift'd suddenly appeared.

I guess Ayph-ci and Golofold were the two that had finished in less than a minute. I looked at them but they didn't seem tough or bear any resemblance to the 10 great clans. It was only after he said that that I realized that I had passed! I'd finally done it! I couldn't believe I'd survived. I turned around and saw Nal-Kae looking at me with a grin so wide his face might split open. Cosmos came and clapped me on the back, which Nal-Kae obviously interpreted as permission to hug me. I stiffened a little, but relaxed and returned it. My hands could feel the soft wings beneath his shirt, and his warmth made me feel something I hadn't in a pretty long time.

Laesa came up to us and said "Good job. Hey, I was wondering if we could be a team."

I looked up. I hadn't thought about going up with anyone except for Cosmos and Nal-Kae. I looked at the two of them and saw that Cosmos wouldn't really care, and Nal-Kae would fall to pieces if we didn't take her on board.

I shrugged "What the hell, I guess you're coming with us."

"As long as you're recruiting" Nathan said. "I wouldn't mind working together with you again."

What in all that's unholy and on the 43rd floor was Nathan saying! Did he want to team up with us? That was my first reaction. My second reaction was that I would never be able to live with him without him burning one of us. I looked at Cosmos and Nal-Kae, but they didn't seem to care. Nal-Kae actually seemed glad at the chance for another damn playmate, and Cosmos would probably let Nathan come just to see me squirm. If this was what being in a team entailed, I wasn't too sure I wanted to be in one now.

Laesa spoke up "Why not, Nal-Kae seems pretty on board with the whole thing."

Oh, right. She was on our team too. Lovely. I turned back to Nathan and he was actually smiling, the damn pyromaniac. "What're you looking at?" I asked.

He didn't move, but he said "You being overruled by the rest of the team. I must admit, it's an amusing sight."

Stuck-up bastard, but then I guess he was right. "Fine, whatever." I turned to the other regulars who passed, looking at us with huge grins "Anyone else wanna come up with us? Any takers? Hyrum? I know we could use a good meatshield like you!"

He growled, but Love came between us "Please refrain from juvenility, regular." He put on emphasis on the last word.

I stood down, we could deal with Hyrum when he made it up next time, and left the arena. Cosmos just had to ruin the mood by asking "What about Yaan?"

I ignored him, staying happy as I looked at Nal-Kae and the rest of the six-man team. Love led us to a suspendiship, which we all boarded, and we floated up to the 21st floor.

**A/N: So, that's the end of part I. A lot of characters introduced in the last test, and I'll be bringing a couple back, but not for a while. The next part will be in first person, but from another person's point of view, and he'll have no connection to this team. Enjoy!**


	13. Part 2, Chapter 1

**A/N: So as I mentioned in the last chapter, this is from the point of view of a different character.**

Not for the first time, I wondered whether I should get out of bed or not. It wasn't like I needed to, the test to the next floor was in a week and there was nothing I needed to do until then. But I decided to get up anyways. The usual nightmare encouraged me to tumble out of bed and buy what breakfast I could with the meager income every E-rank regular received. Most of it was used up on this crappy flat, but I'd skipped dinner last night and stole yesterday's breakfast, so I could afford to get food the legitimate way this time.

I splashed my face with water, like I was trying to wash away the blood of my parents again. No matter that I knew it happened ten years ago; no matter that I knew it wasn't my fault; no matter that I knew those fucktards that told me again and again that I was a freak and punished me for being myself were wrong and I was right- I stopped. Those were thoughts from the Blood Assassin. They didn't have any place right now.

I walked out to the cheapest restaurant available and got some ramen. I had to do takeaway; I couldn't risk him killing anyone without meaning to. I normally had him under control, but it was best to not risk any accidents. Not like these regulars and residents didn't deserve it, but it might attract even more attention than I already had.

I got it and ate while I walked. I looked up at the suspendiships moving around this pink filled floor and remembered the first time I'd saw my dad eating on a public one despite the sign forbidding food and drink.

They won't throw you in jail for eating on a public vehicle, Hanaki. He'd said. Nah, course not. They'd just do it for getting the fuck beaten out of you while you lay there- I stopped myself again. The Blood Assassin couldn't be allowed to dominate my thoughts, not right before the test.

I went back home, but there were always a few seedy people in the seedy neighbourhood, and they sometimes looked for prey for whatever reason. There were four of them "Who's this kid? Never saw him before? Nice food…" All the same bullshit the vultures that feed off fear say. I hated them so much I wanted to rip their eyeballs out and put a bomb in their eye sockets. It was okay to let the Blood Assassin take over for a little bit. These pieces of scum didn't deserve mercy.

I watched as the Blood Assassin walked over and dodged the first punch that came. He grabbed onto the arm and snapped it easily as the bone decayed beneath his touch. He quickly moved up to the next one and stroked his cheek gently, then quickly broke his weakened jaw with a quick slap and kicked him in the pelvis for good measure.

The other two had started to run, but the Blood Assassin was way faster than them, and he hugged the slower one, then squeezed, crushing all of his ribs and some of the organs. He deliberated, then put the regular out of his misery with a quick kick to a decayed skull. He then caught up to the last one and kissed him full on the lips, using his power to search for the brain through the regular's mouth. He found it and destroyed it. The kiss had only lasted five seconds and the Blood Assassin was a little disappointed.

I stopped him before he could go on rampage and kill anyone else, and I walked back to my house, picking up the ramen the Blood Assassin had so kindly left on the ground.

I should've known better than to assume that the four of them didn't have any friends. Four days later I was walking back with some food I'd stolen when ten regulars appeared from the streets behind and in front of me. Yeah, it took them four days to find me.

Damn. If the Blood Assassin killed ten people I might not be able to control him in the test. I couldn't risk unleashing him just three days before the test. He might just end up killing everyone like last time.

I backed away but the fucktards had me surrounded, just like those dumbass shinhueh that surrounded another shinhueh they were too weak to catch by themselves because they-... Shit. It was getting harder to control him. If I didn't control him I could expend all his power to exhaust him, but that would result in the destruction of all the buildings above, below and around me. I would not do that this time unless they were about to kill me.

Then, a dart came from behind me and hit one of the attackers in the hamstring. He fell, and so did the one next to him. I looked behind me and it was a girl with a lighthouse next to a boy with shoulder length blond hair and a needle. He was handsome but had a needle that looked sharp. The attackers had started off with ten people, but in less than 10 seconds their number had been reduced by half.

"Th-they're regulars!" They yelled, and they ran off.

Hmm, did that mean that all I had to do was to show them my pocket and they'd go away? I looked back at the regulars who'd saved the district from destruction and they smiled at me. I looked at the grocery bags they were carrying. I wanted to help them, but I might destroy accidentally the food so I ran off.


	14. Part 2, Chapter 2

Three days later, I went to the testing ground. I passed through the richer district along the way, and had to stop the Blood Assassin from attacking those arrogant Yeon family members that got privilages that were extravagant, even by the standards of those from the ten great clans. He was jealous and I couldn't blame him. But I couldn't lose focus from the test.

I arrived there and saw that this testing ground was packed. There were fifteen other teams, including a team of five, where I saw the two people who'd helped me. There was also another soloist who was a girl. I hoped this test wouldn't be violent. I didn't want to hurt them. Well, I didn't want to hurt anyone, but the Blood Assassin did. Since he controlled my power, it was up to him whether he killed them or not.

The test administrator was obviously someone from the Yeon Clan. He was wearing a pink shirt and white trousers. Koon was Blue, Yeon was pink, I wondered if there was a black colour. He smiled, they always do before you screw them over, and greeted us. "Greetings to the 42 regulars here. I am Phua-Ryong Yeon, your test administrator. Your test will be... " He paused for grand effect. "The great shinheuh race!" He continued in a vibrant voice.

We all paused, then looked at him to see if he was joking. There were test admins who did that, trying to tell us all how they understood the regulars. Just like these arrogant uncaring bastards who had forgotten what it was like to suffer, to hurt, to-. I stopped the Blood Assassin. He couldn't be allowed to dominate me, not now.

"Trust me, dear regulars" He said. "This is not a joke. Please follow me."

He led us to a huge race track that winded up and down and out of sight. He gestured at shinhueh straining at the chains that bound them. The Blood Assassin growled at the idiocy of the test, but I smiled. It looked fun. The Blood Assassin told me to stop wasting energy on frivolities, but I was determined to find it funny.

Phua-Ryong was speaking again. "Each team will select two representatives to mount these shinhueh. Since we have two soloists, we shall put them together. I trust that is fine? He looked at us and I nodded. Not like I could say no.

The other two teams selected their representatives and Phwa-Ryong called out their names as they stepped forward. I never really cared about names but I saw that the handsome boy who saved the district from the Blood Assassin was called Nal-Kae, and he was with a sullen redhead called Nathan. Their hair colours were distinct, and I wondered if there was a family with a colour the shade of gold Nal-Kae had. My partner was Alasis, but when the test administrator called my name, I got a couple of nervous looks, then the murmuring started. Everyone thought that I was the one who killed people. Why didn't they understand that I wasn't the Blood Assassin? They called him by his real name, so why didn't they see that I wasn't the Blood Assassin. I was just a normal kid, Hanaki. I grew up in the residential area, just like everyone else. I did everything I could to keep the Blood Assassin under control, but was it my fault that I sometimes lost my hold?

I only took notice of the shinhueh as I walked up to it. It was a little taller than I was and had a lot of fur around the top. It was four legged, and had a short, stubby tail. Almost like a dog. Except dogs didn't have huge trunks instead of noses that was half the length of their bodies. They swung them about erratically, and I swear those arrogant rankers just conducted this test to see the regulars fail just for their pathetic, sadistic amusement. I jumped up on top of the shinhueh and saw that there weren't any tools people normally used to control shinhueh they rode. Great, another way the test admins liked to screw with us, laughing at us from their high seats reserved the al-fucking-mighty chosen.

Alasis jumped behind me and wondered "How are we supposed to control these things?"

I shrugged. I could always get the blood assassin to kill the other regulars, but that would mean killing Nal-Kae.

"Oh well. We'll just learn as we go along." Alasis said cheerfully. "Oh and don't worry. I'm immune to whatever you're emitting. One of the privileges of being from the 10 great clans."

I whipped around to look at her but she had already jumped up onto the shinhueh behind me. How did she know I was emitting something, and how did she know I was immune to it. And how did she not think I was the Blood Assassin. Maybe she didn't know.

By now the shinhueh were straining at their chains, and I could see that this wouldn't end well for some of us. "The shinhueh will be released on my signal." Phwa-Ryong said. I looked over and saw that he was carrying what looked a gun. Then I looked over to the shinhueh and saw them straining at their chains. I was a little worried but didn't want to ask the other soloist.

"Got a plan?" She asked. She grabbed onto my waist and I stiffened "Hey, no need to get tense." She laughed "Just holding on."

My heart was beating fast, I was scared that she'd fall off the shinheuh because her legs or arms decayed. But instead she leaned in closer, pressing herself against me. It was a funny feeling once I'd gotten over the shock. No one had touched me like that for years, and the Blood Assassin only touched people when he wanted to hear their bones crack and see their blood flowing out of them. But before I could actually think about it, Phwa-Ryong shot his gun and the shinhueh shot of faster than any suspendiship I'd ever been on, and the test started.


	15. Part 2, Chapter 3

I'd only just recovered from the initial shock when I had to duck because of a fireball sent my way. I was suddenly aware of Alasis leaping across to another team that was coming on our right and slightly behind us.

I didn't know what she did then, but later I found out that she'd attached her reel onto the matted fur of our shinhueh and swung around to a third shinhueh that was around 10 metres to our right and slowed down both of them, making the one in the middle run into it and get tangled. I'm guessing she also took out the third team as well. There had been a lot of of teams to start out with, but I guessed our number had been halved with the initial rush.

Suddenly we plunged down into a forest, and there were trees zipping past us as we went. Looking back it was pretty sparse but I had to let the Blood Assassin help me dodge the trees. There are times when his reflexes come in handy. He saw some fire in the distance that was probably Nal-Kae's team, but he didn't have time to think as a spear came flying towards him. He extended his power towards the spear and it shattered upon his outstretched hand. His face was fixed in a tight grin. This was what he loved, fighting and most of all killing.

Another shinhueh drew up alongside him and he could see a fisherman swing over on his reel to land on the shinhueh. It would have been ideal for the Blood Assassin to leap onto the shinhueh alongside his, but he couldn't strengthen his body. He could only weaken things. That was just the kind of person he was.

He whirled around and blocked the punch sent his way. He meant to weaken the fisherman's fist and break his fingers, but the fist was strengthened as well, and the only result was that no one was hurt. The Blood assassin looked back and saw that the shinhueh was veering off course. They were heading towards abandoned ruins, and he couldn't afford to fight at the same time.

Where was Alasis? He turned in time to see the fisherman's foot, and had to decay the area around his face to make sure it didn't get punched off. But he still stumbled and fell on the shinhueh's body. The fisherman's fist sparked and he was about to punch downwards. The Blood Assassin was about to dodge, but I knew that a blow like that might kill our shinhueh. I had been holding back the Blood Assassin because the residue decay might be bad for the Shinheuh, but I let go and the Blood Assassin gathered in his power and thrust his palm forward. His fist contacted and cracked, his fingers breaking simultaneously. His eyes widened and the Blood Assassin kicked him and his ribs caved in as he fell.

He suddenly felt a jolt and realized the shinhueh had ran into a wall. He flew into the ruins and weakened the bricks so he wouldn't break any bones. Staggering to his feet, he looked around and saw the shinhueh rear and run away, leaving him in the dust.

I kicked the walls and they crumbled. I should've killed that fisherman, crushed his limbs one by one until he screamed for me to stop and kept on going until his throat was dry and then I should have crushed his skull. I calmed myself down. The Blood Assassin wasn't needed here and destroying everything wouldn't help.

I suddenly heard a rhythmic thumping behind me. I turned, and saw another shinhueh coming towards me. I was about to attack whoever was riding it when I saw Alasis on top. She slowed down for me and I grabbed onto its fur. I was still yanked off my feet, and it felt like my arm was pulled off from the rest of my body.

"Thought I'd lost you." Alasis said brightly. "Good thing I could sense whatever you're emitting, its really obvious."

I meant to ask her what she meant, but I was worn out from controlling the Blood Assassin and I rested my head on her back. There was a pause where Alasis maneuvered the shinhueh through the ruins, then she said. "Stay alert. We're still not done here." I sat up and looked around. We were in another forest and there were two teams on our tail. Alasis tensed but one of them must have been a lightbearer because he broadcasted out "None of us want to fail anyone." he said "We will fight to defend ourselves, but we could all finish this test without any injuries."

The Blood Assassin stirred again, telling me that these people were just trying to lull us into a false sense of security, but I didn't listen to him. Alasis seemed to have come to the same conclusion because she veered away from them. Unfortunately, the other team didn't agree because one of them threw a spear that moved with uncanny accuracy. Alasis grinned and caught it out of the air with her reel. She grinned at me, then jumped off. I whirled around, but instead of tumbling into the distance, she caught herself easily and ran towards the offending shinhueh. I had to keep concentrating on what was ahead of me.

The Blood Assassin had realized that the shinhueh could sense the decay of things around them and were scared of it. He made the air around the left of the shinhueh and it veered right. He smiled and easily maneuvered through this thicker forest. He kept an eye on the other team, but they seemed to have meant what they said, and didn't move towards us. Once he burst out of the forest he could see the finish line. He wanted to kill the other team, said they were just competition we'd have to fight later, but I forced him down and went past the finish line only seconds after the first team.

They turned to smile at me, but I looked back to see how Alasis was. Another team burst through, but I could see it was Nal-Kae and his teammate. I grinned, despite the Blood Assassin growling in my head, and saw Alasis riding another shinhueh towards us. She waved, and stopped the shinhueh just before it crashed into us. The ranker smiled and said. "You four are the only teams left, and you have all passed. Congratulations."


	16. Part 2, Chapter 4

I looked and found Nal-Kae being hugged by Laesa. Hesitantly, I went over to them and said "Uhh, thanks for the other day."

I didn't know where to look, and I didn't know what to do. The Blood Assassin seemed to be beating in my chest, my head, the tips of my fingers, itching to get out and kill everyone for seeing him show weakness. My vision went red as he tried to decay everything around him.

The other teams were backing away from me, and even Nal-Kae's team seemed apprehensive. "Nal-Kae", a lightbearer on his team said "Be careful."

Laesa put an arm over Nal-Kae's shoulder and rolled her eyes at the lightbearer "Kryst, I really don't get how you can call me overprotective"

Kryst was about to say something when the blaze wielder on the team conjured up a fiery baang. Kryst shut up.

Looking around, I would hate the Blood Assassin if I had any left, but the Blood Assassin had all of it. I only had sadness and neutrality; the moment I started feeling rage or fear the Blood Assassin would rise. He had all of the rage I didn't, so it was obvious that when I called up rage I called up him. I wanted to hate the Blood Assassin for isolating me like this, for taking away any chance I had of a normal life. For taking away any friends I might have had. That day on the 18th floor when he had destroyed half of a residential sector, I had forever been branded as the Blood Assassin. I suppose that was unfair of them; the Blood Assassin had probably been born the day before Headon paid me a visit.

I shook my head slightly, I knew from experience that those kind of thoughts would just draw him out. I foucsed back on the real world and saw Laesa smiling. "You're welcome", she said.

I wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. My mind was a complete blank. Alasis came behind me and said "I think what Hanaki's trying to say, is 'can we climb up with you?'"

I spun around, and felt shock and surprise, one of the few emotions I could feel without any danger.

I wasn't the only one, and a frontline scout was convulsing with silent laughter. Kryst was spluttering, and after a couple of seconds said "What in the name of Mazino are you thinking!?" He turned to the scout "Cosmos, shut up!"

He took a step forward to Alasis, and I growled. It was the first time I could remember me and the Blood Assassin acting of the same volition. Alasis put a hand on my shoulder, and I could see her draining away the Blood Assassin's power.

What the hell was going on? How could she do any of these things, she acted like my decaying aura was normal. Kryst laid a hand on my shoulder, and I ran back some steps terrified that his fingers would crack with a flick.

"It's cool, Hanaki." Alasis said "You didn't hurt him."

Kryst raised an eyebrow "Doesn't look like he wanted to hurt me."

"He didn't." Alasis' smile faded, and Kryst seemed to realize she couldn't have been soloing without being powerful.

"I think it's a wonderful idea" Laesa said "I think Nal-Kae wants another playmate, it'll be good for him to have someone around the same age to be with"

Kryst choked on the word playmate while Cosmos started to convulse again. The redheaded blaze wielder stepped forward "How good are you?"

Alasis didn't smile, and seemed absorbed into the game of intimidating the opponent "He's the Blood Assassin, what more proof do you need?"

"And you? I require more than just the fact that you are a soloist."

Alasis grinned "Do you want to fight? That would settle things."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and looked at the other four teammates. Kryst cut in "A pair battle, to see both of them in action. Me and Nathan, you and the Blood Assassin."

"His name's Hanaki." Alasis said. I couldn't tell her how much I appreciated that, the acceptance of my name, my actual name, not just the Blood Assassin. I realised Alasis was waiting for me to accept or reject. I wanted to fight by Alasis' side, but I didn't want to kill anyone, especially not Nal-Kae's friends, so I shook my head

Alasis seemed disappointed at my rejection, and I regretted that; but, I would regret killing everyone here even more.

"I guess it's just me and you, Nathan Blitz." Alasis said

Nathan looked at her sharply, but refrained from asking how Alasis knew. Instead, he said "A fisherman defeating a wave controller isn't much of a feat. You should still try and fight against Kryst and I"

I saw Alasis was about to shrug and just accept, but I cut in "That's not fair. Two versus one, especially someone from a notable clan."

"She should be strong enough to at least yield before we kill her." Nathan said. The Blood Assassin decayed the air around him in anger "Fine then." He spat "I'll fight, and I'll kill both of you."

"If you wish I may authorize a fight for the four of you." Getting the Blood Assassin under control, I then realised the ranker was still here, and even some of the failed regulars had been drawn here at the prospect of a fight. Alasis looked at Nathan and he nodded.

The ranker seemed as if he had arranged fights like this before, because he expertly carved a circle with a radius of 20 metres into the ground, and quickly read of the rules as if by rote. It was a simple one on one fight, you lost if you went out of the circle, said yield, thumped the ground three times, or were rendered unconscious. He put a lot of emphasis on the fact that he would not take any responsibility for deaths. Cold bastard. He just wanted to see a good fight, just like the rest. I wondered if I could kill him, decay the air around him, then stick my hand into his chest when he wasn't suspecting it. I tried to keep the Blood Assassin reined in, but everytime I imagined Alasis dying he wanted to kill everyone on the floor.

The ring was ready, and the fight started. Nathan summoned up a fiery baang, and Kryst got out his lighthouse. I could sense the air inside the baang purifying and strengthening. Alasis walked cautiously towards Nathan and I followed suit.

"Run." It was Alasis, and she dashed faster than I could follow towards Nathan. Belatedly I ran towards Nathan as well, staggering under the pressure field Kryst set up. Nathan fired his baang at me, but I decayed it and swatted it away, feeling only a slight increase in heat. Nathan quickly conjured up another baang and started firing it at Alasis, dodging her first charge only with the help of Kryst's lighthouse.

Nathan had decided to start firing quick and weak baangs in Alasis' direction; he'd finally worked out Alasis was more dangerous than I was. Kryst's lighthouse also made the baangs swerve and attack Alasis on all sides. Drawing in a deep breath, I decayed the air around Alasis, making most of the baangs disappear. The pressure from the control needed was astounding, I'd never felt so much pain in my life. It would be so easy to just let the Blood Assassin take over, to kill everyone. Alasis' warmth came to mind, and the memory of just being with her, and I continued disrupting Nathan and Kryst.

Alasis kept on forcing Nathan back, but now he started conjuring up two baangs at once, and aimed one at me and one at Alasis. Kryst sped them up, and even though I dodged it, I couldn't shield Alasis and she had to fall back quickly to avoid being burnt. The two of them started to go for quantity over quality, and stormed Alasis, but gritting her teeth, she dashed to the side and ran at Kryst. Nathan spun and fired baangs at her but I decayed them all from a distance. Nathan hesitated, not knowing who to try and attack, and in that second Alasis had kicked Kryst out of the circle.

We both spun to face Nathan, but he raised his arms in surrender. "Very well, I suppose I would not mind having you climb with us."

Laesa clapped her hands happily "Kryst, you're outvoted again."

Massaging his stomach, Kryst grumbled something unintelligible, then shrugged. "Fine, I guess we have two new teammates."

I heard the regulars all clapping and remembered that we had an audience. I'm not sure they even knew what we were fighting about. Then Kryst's words hit me. I was in a team. If I couldn't control myself, then what would happen to them. I ran over to Alasis and told her, but she just patted me on the head "Don't be such a worrywart. Why did you fight so hard if you didn't want that, anyways?"

_Because they would have killed you and I couldn't bear the thought of losing the one person I can't kill._ In an ideal world that's what I would have said, but if it was an ideal world I wouldn't be in this position, so I just shrugged. Alasis smiled knowingly, and led me to our new team. I concentrated hard so I didn't decay anything around me, and the seven of us boarded a suspendiship that took us to the 22nd floor.

* * *

**A/N: So that's the end of part 2. I didn't realize how short part 2 would be compared to part 1, but I guess that's because part 1 was introducing many more characters. Part 2 was just meant to introduce Hanaki, and Alasis. I'll probably get into Hanaki and Alasis' backstory in part 3 or 4. **

**This was a longer chapter, and I could have drawn this out into two, but I didn't. The main reason for this is because I'm going somewhere with no wifi for a month, so I won't be updating anything for a while. Really sorry about this. Thanks for supporting me and I'll be back with part 3 in July!**


	17. Part 3, Chapter 1

**Hey, I'm back. This chapter will basically be more like a set of short stories about the more casual lives of our team. The goal is to just get to know them more and how they interact, because up until now it's always just been pretty action packed without that much character depth.**

**As a result, the pace of the story might seem slow and a little boring, but I'll do my best to make it interesting at the same time. I'll also be writing from the POV's of different characters, so you'll see their names on the top of each chapter to avoid confusion.**

**Hope you enjoy, and please review!**

* * *

**Nal-Kae**

* * *

My room has always been my sanctuary. Climbing the tower, hiding my wings, my room was the one place where I could relax and unfold my wings. Of course, Kryst would probably call me an idiot for not thinking there weren't ways people could see into my room, but Kryst does tend to take things to extremes.

It's different now, though. Now my sanctuary's been extended to the whole house our team lives in. Everyone saw how I could fly down on the 20th floor, and we told Alasis and Hanaki soon after they joined us. I still can't believe how lucky I was, getting into a team that wasn't scared of me because I could fly. I showed everyone on the 2nd floor, but all they thought about was how it could affect their test scores, and how I was "better" than them.

I deliberately failed the 3rd floor test, then went up with the next batch of chosen regulars. I didn't get any jealous looks from them, but everyone still avoided me because they thought I was weak. I proved them wrong, of course, but that still left the question of why I had failed the test in the first place. So, people were still suspicious of me.

I guess Kryst would just snort and say that's how people always are, but I always hope that there'll be more people like Kryst and the rest of my team around.

"You have got to be absolutely joking!"

"Just look, everyone knows that I'm right. You can't deny the evidence."

"I don't care if you have evidence or not, we are not buying Nal-Kae anymore sets of clothes!"

Did I mention that Kryst took things to extremes? One of the things he takes to extremes is what I would call economy, Kryst would call being smart and making sure we still get to climb, and everyone else call being a cheapskate.

"Just look at his shirt, I'm surprised none of the other residents have seen his wings poking out from behind him." Laesa argued back. I was pretty sure she was doing this just to wind Kryst up again. To be fair though, there was a week until our next test and we didn't have anything else to do. I suppose baiting Kryst was one way to pass the time.

I put my hand up and asked "Umm, don't I get a say in this?"

"You don't understand" Cosmos stage-whispered to me, making sure Kryst could hear everything "The whole point is to keep what you want ambiguous, that way we get to see Kryst and Laesa argue longer."

I looked around and saw Nathan lounging on the floor, Alasis leaning against the wall, Hanaki standing behind her (he did that a lot for some reason), and they all had the expression they had the night we watched some comedy on Kryst's Box.

"We all stop growing once we enter the tower," Kryst was arguing "why does Nal-Kae need clothes?"

I was yanked over by Laesa, who tugged at my long sleeve "He could hide his hands in these when we first met, now they can't even cover his wrist."

She had a point. I'd always worn baggy clothes to hide my wings, and sometimes wondered how some regulars could wear vests or tight shirts. Hiding my hands was also an old habit. They just felt safer when they were hidden. I didn't think it was getting that small though, and I was pretty sure that Laesa was just exaggerating things.

She also knew how to push Kryst's buttons, though, and mentioning my wings sticking out was the right way to go. I sometimes felt a little uncomfortable about how much Kryst worried about me sticking out. He probably thought I'd get mugged for looking out of place, but I was pretty sure I could take care myself. Being overprotective was something else Kryst took to extremes.

"Fine" Kryst said and went off to his room. He was probably checking our budget on his lighthouse and muttering insults at Laesa and everyone else.

"Who knew getting beaten up by loan sharks could've left such a trauma" Cosmos noted. The rest of us laughed, when Laesa stood up and dragged me to the door.

"Are we going out already?" I asked "Do we have money?"

"Of course we do. And why wait." Just like that we were out the door and walking to the residential district.

* * *

"Hey, what's your favorite colour?" Laesa asked. We'd been walking around the shopping district for a while now, and I was lost. Not just in terms of location, although she had dragged me around for so long that all the streets blurred into one. I had never been taken shopping before. Now that I thought about it, all my clothes had been gotten second-hand on the lowest floors. People don't normally grow after entering the Tower, something to do with the shinsoo. Kryst could probably explain it if I asked him to.

I had never even thought about a favorite colour before, either. I didn't usually have the luxury to think of such pointless things, so when Laesa asked me the question, my mind drew a blank.

"I dunno." I shrugged "What's yours?"

"Blue" she replied happily "Like the shinsoo that brings life to all of us."

I considered adding that it could also kill all of us, but decided not to. That was the kind of thing Kryst would say. He always was paranoid about getting complacent, and was always thinking about something or other. Another thing he took to extremes.

"Hey, this shop seems okay, the prices are pretty nice too." Laesa I had to struggle to keep up with Laesa, she seemed invigorated by the mere act of buying clothes for some reason. Looking around the shop I saw other regulars and residents looking around. The clothes weren't anything fancy like we saw the top E-rank regulars wearing, but they looked... nice.

"Do you have colours you don't like?" Laesa asked, looking at a garishly purple long sleeve.

I nodded, and said "That colour" I looked around at pointed some orange and aquamarine short sleeves "and those, and basically stuff that doesn't look normal."

"What do you mean, normal? There are loads of clothes this colour," she said, holding up the purple long sleeve "which means that this is normal." She threw it at me, and I threw it back. "I mean, stuff that doesn't look weird."

"Like?" Laesa said, grinning "I think that green looks like the colour of the trees" she said, pointing to a bright green shirt that was so bright it seemed to emit its own light.

"No." I exclaimed "Brown, white, black, blue, even red! But not..." I didn't know what to say, but I saw Laesa grinning and knew she was just teasing me. I noticed that I was smiling as well.

"Yeah, yeah." she laughed "You don't like to stand out." She stepped over and grabbed a white dress shirt with blue stripes. "How's this? Nice and inconspicuous?"

I shook my head "Too formal. It's like I'm going out to one of those fancy dinners."

Laesa sighed in mock aggravation "No pleasing the little lord, is there?" She grabbed a cotton long sleeve that was black with stripes of dark blue. "Nice and dark for you to fade away into the background."

I smiled back, knowing it didn't really bother her. She tossed it to me and I caught it, wondering why we didn't just get a basket for carrying the clothes.

"Well, go try it on." Laesa said "What are you waiting for?"

"Why do I need to try it on?" I asked in confusion "I can tell it fits me."

Laesa rolled her eyes again "It's just one of the things that you do in shops. Are you going to try on pants, or just assume it fits?"

"Pants are totally different." I protested "Besides, what if they have cameras in the changing rooms. I don't want to take off my shirt there. I'm not even sure if there's room."

Laesa looked at me in disbelief "Cameras in changing rooms? You've definitely been hanging around Kryst too often." She sighed, then asked "Will you at least try on pants to make sure they fit? Kryst will go ballistic if he finds out we wasted money."

We both laughed and I nodded. She then went and picked out a pair of jeans and looked at me questioningly. I shook my head, not liking tight clothing even on my legs. I never understood how people squeezed into them. I picked up some cargo trousers and held them up. I liked them. Seeing me, Laesa picked out another pair that was a different colour. She thrusted them into my arms and practically pushed me into the changing rooms.

I came out, putting both the new shirt and trousers on. Laesa smiled when I got out, and I said "Told you so, they both fit."

She just shrugged "Never hurts to be sure. That's one of the jobs of a lightbearer, making plans and making sure they work."

I looked at her weirdly "OK... that was a little weird. Let's go back."

She smiled and held up a black and orange polka-dot shirt. "You sure you don't want to buy a couple more of these?"

I simply raised my eyebrows and brought them to the cashier to pay for them.

We went to a few more shops, but we didn't buy anything else other than a black hoodie with red lining. I liked it; it even covered my head. Laesa kept on rolling her eyes, but it was clear she was enjoying myself. I was surprised to find I was enjoying myself as well, despite all the protesting I did. When we made our way back home, Kryst muttered something about frivolous spending, but couldn't help smiling and added "You look great, kid."

I guess a lot of people said things they didn't mean.


	18. Part 3, Chapter 2

Kryst

I've never had much of an imagination. The real world keeps on interfering, and besides, you'll never get anywhere stuck in your own head. Maybe because I was never good at imagining, I've never gotten scared that much. When I was in a test, I swore a lot, but never got scared being too distracted by other things like almost getting killed. Even getting battered by the loan sharks, who by the way never traumatized me, I swore like hell but never got scared, only got angry and pissed off.

So, even though our test to ascend to the 23rd floor would take place tomorrow, I wasn't scared. I got pissed off more easily but not scared. And you'd think that other teammates might feel scared or apprehensive, but it's like we're going on a Zaharddamned picnic. Nathan doesn't care, and Cosmos is just happy to let Laesa wind me up. Alasis is acting a little tense, but I don't think she's failed a test since she got here, and Enryu alone knows what Hanaki thinks. At least Nathan agreed to train together with me.  
I was no genius, and couldn't think of any of those fancy maneuvers you saw on the Box. Hopefully, we'd just be facing normal opponents and not anyone from the 10 great clans. Nathan still wasn't able to create three baangs, but he could create two more quickly and fire them within a second. His aim still wasn't that good, but that was what I was for. We didn't really need much training, and we were soon standing around awkwardly.

I always hate silences, I find them awkward. So I tried to break it "How long did it take you to climb up to the 20th floor?" I continued on knowing that Nathan wouldn't want to answer. "I did it in 7 years. Nothing spectacular, but I didn't fail many tests. And then I got to the 20th floor, and I guess you know the rest."

Nathan still didn't say anything, and it just got on my nerves "Why the hell don't you say anything?" I asked "Is it because of this image that you think you have to maintain? Is it because you think you're better than us? Why don't you talk?"

Nathan looked at me sharply "Is that what you've thought?"

Well, at least he started talking "What, that you don't talk? Yeah. Know why? Because you don't talk!"

Nathan started chuckling "I thought you knew, so I didn't tell you. Guess I overestimated your intelligence once again."

That hit a sore spot. I've always been proud of my intelligence "You overestimated my telepathic skills, if you thought I knew what you were thinking. Why don't you tell me what's going on, Nathan Blitz!"

Nathan sat down and looked up at the ceiling before looking at me, and I noticed that he probably hadn't slept well in a long time, judging by the bags around his eyes. His pale skin looked ghostly in contrast with his bright red hair. "What do you know about the Blitz clan?" He asked. It didn't seem like a rhetorical question or anything, so I answered honestly

"Nothing much. Just that their notorious for being insane and pyromaniacs. You definitely fit the bill, at least in the pyromaniacal direction."

Nathan chuckled a little "and I hope I never fulfill the description. You see, I don't advertise my name, not because I'm ashamed of it, but because I'm informally disowned. Not officially of course," seeing my reaction of disbelief "the paperwork and publicity wasn't something they wanted; but, they've made it clear that I'm no longer welcome to the privileges a member of the Blitz clan would normally have."

So that's why he was going laid into by the loan sharks on the 20th floor. I realized I'd never heard him talk this much at one time before, but he continued talking

"They disowned me because I wasn't insane enough." He said, meeting my gaze. What the hell was he talking about? What did he mean?

"Well, that's not what they said," Nathan kept on talking "but I didn't enjoy killing things and I reflected on what I did. People of the Blitz clan... they don't do that."

"So they disowned you?"

Nathan sighed "I haven't thought about this in years. It was when I was fourteen. There were these groups of boys that were roasting insects alive. You could hear them squealing in agony. I didn't like it, so I scared off the kids."

I raised an eyebrow "when you say scare off, do you mean..." I trailed off and he laughed.

"Yes, I hear their burns took a while to heal."

"And the insects?" I asked

Nathan was silent for a while, and I thought he wasn't going to speak. Then he said "I put them out of their misery."

I looked at him and couldn't think of anything to say. His face didn't betray any feelings, and I couldn't tell if he was remorseful or not.

"Anyways," he said "I was heading somewhere before I got sidetracked."

Oh, I wasn't aware there was a point to that. I normally just talk because it feels nice, having people understand where you're coming from.

"I'm not insane yet, but sometimes I feel it calling to me. When you tell yourself something enough times, you think it's true. Insanity is when you tell yourself things and only believe what you tell yourself and don't listen to anyone else. Listening to you talking all day every day... it keeps me sane."

It was pretty deep stuff, and I didn't really know what to say. This was one of the times where talking just added to the awkwardness. "So, basically" I said slowly "You want me to keep on talking while you listen because it keeps you from turning out like the other Blitz kids."

For some reason Nathan found this hilariously funny and convulsed on the ground laughing. When I asked him he just said "I could have just told you. I could have just told you."

I didn't get what the hell he was talking about, but he just shook his head and resumed his normal chuckle and said "Let's get back to practice."

I shook my head, but followed him and practiced. I'd always accepted Nathan as a friend; well, not always but ever since we became a team. I didn't get what was so hard about making friends, but apparently Nathan only just accepted me as his friend now.

People sure were weird.


	19. Part 3, Chapter 3

**Alasis**

People have accused me of rushing through life. I accuse them of being complacent and not having any resolve. I rush through this Tower as quick as I can for my goal. Some people take decades off before choosing to advance, but I just think that they don't have a spine. I try to rush through this Tower, but sometimes you have setbacks. Sometimes you fail a test.

There was a depressed atmosphere as we straggled back from the testing arena having just failed it. The whole test was to our disadvantage, but Kryst still blames himself for not having thought of a better strategy. In a way, everyone blames themselves. Nal-Kae think he should have flown, like that would have accomplished anything. We were in a Zahardamned jungle, and any attempt to fly would have resulted in him being shot down by the other team. Oh, did I mention they had fucking camouflage? Seriously, how cheap was that?

Nathan isn't saying anything, and he just went straight to his room to sulk. He probably thought that he should have burnt down the whole jungle instead of letting them win, but I personally prefer my skin where it is, not turned to ash and blown around the testing arena. Hanaki's disappointed as well. He's off in his room, but for a different reason. He doesn't want to let the "Blood Assassin" out.

He really does my head in, that kid. How in the world did his schizophrenia get that bad? It pisses me off a lot that he's like that. If he could just control his power, he'd be as powerful as one of the members of the Ten Great Clans. How the hell do I tell him he's the Blood Assassin? And why doesn't he want to own up to having all that power?

Anyways, Kryst just checked with his Lighthouse and we have to wait another 2 months before we can take the test again. Which pisses me off. I know that some other teams have to wait longer to their test, but compared to the 10 days we had to wait for the test we failed, well, I'm just pissed off.

I wondered if other teams would take me and Hanaki. I was plenty strong, and we could easily disguise his ability to decay as an ability to strengthen his body. He could block the strongest punch just by decaying the air around his hand. I'm pretty sure we could find other teams in need of frontliners, and people who we could team up with just for this floor. Teams never usually lasted long, because they were just made up of people who banded together purely for themselves. They'd work together for one floor, and disband on the next, looking for stronger teammates. That was just how it was. Of course, you did have those strong teams with the top E-rank regulars who stuck together, but that was just because there wasn't anyone stronger to choose.

And then you had our team. We still didn't have a name yet. That was another source of noise and amusement, along with Kryst. Cosmos wanted The Insane Psychopaths, on account of having Nathan and Hanaki in our team. Kryst drew the line at putting the famous Blood Assassin as our mascot. Laesa said she wanted Nal-Kae and his Playmates, but I'm pretty sure that was just to wind Kryst up. There's no way Kryst or Nal-Kae would let her do that. When I asked Nathan he thought and said, "Something simple, like... the Evil Curse of the Volcanic, Blazing, Red-Hot, Super-Torches." I had looked at him thinking he was serious, but his lips twitched and he snorted. Wasn't it great how everyone suddenly had a sense of humour.

Anyways, I'd gone over to Hanaki and told him the plan. I didn't think he'd have a problem with it mainly because he didn't usually care about anything I did.

Boy was I wrong.

He sent out this huge wave of whatever he usually emitted around us. The bed he'd been lying on crashed, the wooden frame rotting and the sheets tearing apart like tissue papers. I quickly backed into a wall, which was a mistake. It had been weakened too and I crashed over into the other room while I started bleeding profusely. Under the influence of Hanaki's decaying aura, blood thinned and one cut could mean death. I usually wasn't worried as I could strengthen my body to neutralize it, but the wave he'd shot out was just so strong that it completely nullified whatever I strengthened.

Awkwardly enough, the room I'd crashed into was Nathan's. We put the two of them in adjoining rooms because they both liked to retreat there and brood. He was looking at the two of us, cradling a fiery baang in his hand. If he shot it out at me and burnt me, I would kill him. Of course, Kryst would probably do it first if he saw the hospital bills, but I'd kill him again. Thinking about it, he'd probably kill me when he saw the damage I'd done to the house.

I looked over into Hanaki's room, but he wasn't there. In his place was another hole in the wall, where he'd obviously run out. Yeah, Kryst would kill me. Luckily, he was out for some reason and I wasn't going to be around when he got back. Hopefully I'd find Hanaki and come back after he'd found out about the mess and had some time to cool down. I ran over to the hole and jumped out, wondering where the hell Hanaki went.

* * *

I walked through the residential district, trying to sense Hanaki. I was normally able to do so, but it was hard in a crowded environment. That, and Hanaki had gotten a lot better in controlling his power. Damn. I jumped to the top of the nearest building, like that would help. Hanaki didn't stand out physically, it was only when you got close to him that you found something was off about him.

By the Guardian! I was tempted to kick the ground in frustration, but I didn't want to risk breaking the roof. It was enough to pay for the house we were living in. I sat down and clenched my fist in frustration. What did I say that set him off?

I thought for a moment, but was interrupted when Laesa stood above me. I jumped up and turned to face her, asking "How did you find me?"

Laesa let her Lighthouse hover in front of her as an answer. She could find Hanaki as well. I started to ask her, but she cut me off. "Why did Hanaki run off?"

I shrugged. "I really don't know. I was just talking about finding a new team to climb up faster, and he went crazy."

Laesa smiled slightly, "Crazier than he already is?"

"So you do see it too, it's not just me?" I asked. For so long they'd acted as if Hanaki was normal, that I wondered if they really knew what Hanaki was feeling inside. It was a good thing that Hanaki was treated normally, but I still wondered what would happen if he went berserk. "How do I tell him it's just in his head?" I asked. Maybe Laesa would know how to knock sense into Hanaki."

Laesa's smile didn't waver as she sat down with her legs dangling over the edge. "You can't. If he denies it, then what can you do? There's nothing stopping him from just denying what you said as well."

That wasn't what I was expecting, and I thumped the ground in frustration, leaving a small crater where I left my hand. "So what do I do? Let him continue on as a delusional schizophrenic?"

"Do you know why Hanaki persists in this act?" Laesa asked. I joined her on the edge of the building and looked down at the regulars and residents go about their everyday business. When I didn't say anything, Laesa said "It's because he doesn't have the strength to face up to what he's done."

"So how does he get this strength?" I asked acidly. "Train harder?"

"I don't know if that was sarcasm or not." Laesa said. "He needs to know that he can rely on us for his strength, that he doesn't need to do it by himself."

I snorted, "Good luck with that. He's even more anti-social than Nathan." That sounded harsh, even to me, but then again, I wasn't in the best of moods. I wondered if Laesa would take offence and leave, and realized with surprise that I didn't want her to leave. Did I really want to leave this team?

"Of course he's starting to rely on us." Laesa said, "Why did you think he ran off?" I turned towards her and saw that she was looking at me with a wan smile. She wasn't sad, or amused, or mad; she was just accepting. When she saw I still didn't understand, she continued "You told him that he had to leave us. Of course his emotions went out of control. He doesn't want to leave us."

I stared at her, then leaned back and thought. If what Laesa had said was true, then he did want to stay with this team. "How long until he starts to drop this stupid facade?" I asked Laesa. "I don't have much time."

She looked at me curiously. "That's right. Why did you want to switch teams in the first place? We've got decent people if strength's what you're looking for."

In retrospect, me wanting to switch teams just to gain some months was such a petty reason. I didn't want to say such a shameful thing outright, so I just said "I don't have much time. I need to get to the top quickly."

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, Laesa understood. At first she didn't say anything, then she asked "Why would you go to such lengths just to climb the tower a couple months early?"

I didn't want to tell her, but at the same time I did. I just hated lying and not telling this team. Did I feel so much loyalty and kinship towards them now? I'd never felt this way towards any team. Of course, I'd been soloing since the 13th floor, but still, I'd never wanted to belong to any team. Even asking to be accepted into this team on the 21st floor was just another way for me to climb quicker.

"What do you know of the Bloodmadder family?" I asked. Laesa looked a little confused, but her eyes gleamed in slight understanding. "Only that their children refuse to admit being his offspring because of their notoriously short lives. They live in shame because of the decisions their father made."

I nodded heavily. "And sometimes they die." I hadn't thought about the past often. I only used it as fuel for determination and drive. I didn't like reflecting on anything, let alone the past. Laesa had a talent for drawing people out. Either that or I was just bursting to tell someone. "My mom never told me or Alvaron who our grandad was. She told us to keep our physical strength a secret, or else people would come take us."

She smiled slightly in nostalgia of the games they would play as a whole family to cover up their abnormal abilities. "The other village people knew we weren't from around here, but they took us in. They were normal residents, and they had short life spans. And my mom had the shortest one of them all."

Her face darkened and she kicked the corner of the building they were sitting on in preocuppation. Some bricks would have fallen down on the ground if Laesa hadn't held them up with her Lighthouse and deposited them on the roof. Alasis smiled at Laesa in thanks, and continued. "I was ten and my brother, Alvaron was seven when she died. It was normal. Her body just stopped working. It was like she was succumbing from old age, even though she was only in her early thirties. She kept on saying sorry at the end, saying how it was her fault we were doomed to die. I still didn't get it at the time, but she told me our grandad was Bloodmadder."

Alasis was surprised to find that the memory still hurt, even though it had been 8 years ago. She held back tears as she said, "Those were her second last words. Her last ones were for me to take care of Alvaron." She looked up at Laesa and said heatedly "And that's why I have to go up. I have to get to the hundredth floor and get the Guardian to change the contract he made with that fucking coward of a Clan Head. Get him to find some loophole or some way I can take care of Alvaron. My only hope is that Alvaron got chosen to climb as well, or else he'll be dead in another decade or two. If he does get chosen, then I have a maximum of a hundred years to get to the hundredth floor. That's why I don't have time. Every second counts, and I'd rather go to hell than letting my brother die!"

I realized I was shouting, and had destroyed a little more of the wall we were sitting on. There was a small pile of concrete that Laesa had levitated to the safer part of the roof. "Sorry" I said, embarrassed at how easily I'd lost control.

Laesa didn't say anything for a while, and I was afraid that she'd get up and leave me. Why was I afraid of leaving? I'd done it plenty of times before, why should I be afraid now? Then she spoke "You have to choose between Alvaron and Hanaki."

The words struck me like nothing had. I almost fell off the roof. "Wh-what do you mean?" I asked. "What do I have to choose?"

"Whether to rush on for the sake of Alvaron, or spend more time with us for the sake of Hanaki." Laesa replied, "I get why you're rushing, and don't mind if you keep on rushing past us. Just don't expect to be able to help Hanaki at the same time."

I still didn't get what she meant, and she rolled her eyes "To help Hanaki, you need to spend time to let him trust you explicitly, and trust others explicitly. Only then will he be able to drop the concept of the Blood Assassin; because he knows he has others he can trust."

"But that will take time" Laesa continued, cutting me off, "If you want to rush off and leave Hanaki to go back into his own insane little world, then go. None of us can stop you. But don't expect to be able to help Hanaki while rushing off after Alvaron."

I was angry. I didn't know what to do, or what to say. I was just so confused and guilty. What should I do? What could be done? I realized I had gotten up without realizing it and was now pacing the roof. I made to stamp the ground, but was held up by Laesa's pressure field. My leg still moved, but the roof remained unharmed. She laid an arm on my shoulder and pulled me into a hug. I told myself it was because of the pressure field exerted on me that I didn't pull away. "You don't have to choose now." Laesa said. "Hell, you don't even have to consciously choose. Just know that we'll support you the whole way."

I stumbled back, not knowing what to do or say. I just stood there in a daze. I couldn't see clearly and was unsteady on my feet. I was aware of tears running down my face, and I hated myself for showing weakness. Laesa smiled again. "Come one, I thought you wanted to find Hanaki."

"You know where he is?" I asked, suddenly alert. How did she know?

"Hanaki's where he wants to be." Laesa said, "and he always will be."

* * *

When we got back to our quarters, Kryst was glaring at me. "Care to explain?"

I looked over and saw Hanaki slouching in the corner. He seemed to be normal, but it was weird how he was over by Kryst. Did he want to separate himself from me?

"Um, Hanaki..." I trailed off. I didn't expect Kryst's response. "Yup, he told me how you destroyed half of our house."

What? Then I looked at Hanaki and realized why he was staying away from me. That little... I turned to Kryst, and said, "Can I just say that Hanaki did it all?"

Kryst's pissed expression didn't waver, but that said it all. I turned and saw Hanaki slouch away back to his room, and to everyone else it would have looked like nothing had changed; but, I saw his smile before he turned, and knew that he was grinning at the prank he'd played on me. There'd be hell to pay for it on my part, because when Kryst started on something, he wouldn't stop, but at that moment I couldn't help thinking what a perfect apology it was. No solemness or seriousness, because that was Hanaki all the time. He played some stupid prank on me like a friend would prank another friend. He did it to tell me that he was treating me as one. And I knew Laesa was right. Hanaki was right where he wanted to be.

* * *

**OK, sorry this was a little late. I found this chapter a little harder to write, because this was about both Hanaki and Alasis. Hope you all enjoyed it. Next chapter will head in the more comical direction. 'Till next time!**


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